The BBC Schools Hollywood on How to Respond to Leaked Scripts

BBC

Over the weekend, the scripts for five episodes of the upcoming season of Doctor Who appeared online—a mishap that occurred while they were being translated for closed-captioning purposes.

Almost immediately, the BBC confirmed that the leaked material was real, and appealed to viewers’ better angels. “We would like to make a plea to anyone… not to share it with a wider audience so that everyone can enjoy the show as it should be seen on 23 August,” the network said in a statement. “We know only too well that Doctor Who fans are the best in the world and we thank them for their help with this and their continued loyalty.”

It was a fast and sensible response—which, in today’s freakout-laden climate, made it all the more surprising.

Compare it, for example, to Quentin Tarantino’s reaction when the script for his western The Hateful Eight leaked: he shelved the project and filed a lawsuit against Gawker for linking to copies of the script. Or to the rumored production delay that purportedly happened after the Marvel’s script for The Avengers leaked.

At this point, it’s a fair bet that any cultural text—whether screenplay, album, or game—is going to debut online earlier than anticipated. Once, the challenge was how to prevent such things: Paramount flew actors to specific locations where they read Star Trek Into Darkness scripts under guard; Lions Gate created different Hunger Games screenplay variants for different recipients). Now, the challenge isn’t in prevention, it’s managing the aftermath. And the BBC’s response shows that they understand this—and won’t let a leak derail fan anticipation.

Warner Bros.

Of course, not everyone is so level-headed about it. This weekend also brought allegations that Warner Bros. had hired Kevin Smith to write a fake screenplay for the 2016 tentpole Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, with the express intent of leaking it online as a decoy to draw spoiler-hunters away from any legitimate news. If that’s true, it’s a genius move: at the very least, an official-looking red-herring screenplay would cause enough confusion to prevent any genuine leaks from spreading too far.

But on the other hand, consider what a colossal over-reaction that is. A movie studio commissioned a complete, ready-to-shoot fake movie script from a top-dollar screenwriter just to confuse the Internet. While studios have long used deception to prevent the press from finding out too much about a movie ahead of release for some time (remember ”Blue Harvest”?), this is taking that self-importance to a new—and expensive—next level.

Sure, a fake script means that at least ten “exclusive scoops” you’ve read online are totally bogus, but wouldn’t it just have been less insulting—and cheaper—if Warners had just gone the BBC route and asked people to stop spoiling everyone’s fun? Or, at the very least, just let your PA write the fake script next time.

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